"The Storm Stops at the Door"

Last night Debbe (with no i) and Isaac came out to me at bedtime and in classic stalling tactic mode claimed they were scared of the monsters under their beds. At first I humored them and told them there were no monsters under their beds and to go back to bed. Well, they got more persistent and began to act more scared so I decided to use this as a teaching moment. I told them, and I believe it quite strongly, that if there is any place in the whole world that they are going to be safe, it is going to be within the walls of their own home. I told them that this is the ONE PLACE in the whole world that they are guaranteed to be safe. I told them that mommy and daddy work very hard to make sure that Heavenly Father's Spirit is welcome in our home so He will protect us in our home so they should NEVER be afraid when they are in their own home. I feel this very strongly. I came across this conference talk by President Monson given in the April 2008 Conference http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-851-29,00.html a while ago and in it he said, "Our homes are to be more than sanctuaries; they should also be places where God's Spirit can dwell, where the storm stops at the door, where love reigns and peace dwells." I love that and it stuck with me. So, after lecturing my kids for a few minutes on why our home is the one place in the whole world where they are always safe, they had nothing more to say about monsters, quietly said, "oh." and went to bed. Like I said, I feel very strongly about this. Chad and I work hard to make our home a place where the Spirit feels welcome and if our kids can't feel safe here, then where can they feel safe?